Supply of electronic components for vehicle regulationsDrive Automotive Innovation Forward
From the market point of view, ST, NXP, Infineon and other major manufacturers have not been released from the supply of materials, the delivery time to maintain more than 40 weeks or even 52 weeks, the price is also high. This is representative of ST's F429, F427 series, as well as Infineon's SAK series and other products.
Due to the unabated demand for automotive-grade materials, ST, NXP and other automotive-grade majors maintained excellent revenue and profit performance in the second quarter, and made optimistic expectations for the third quarter. In contrast, the general consumer original equipment manufacturers and memory manufacturers, the third quarter are difficult to optimistic view.
With the continuous promotion of automotive intelligence, new energy, automotive MCU is clearly a long-term opportunity, and in the decline of consumer electronics, automotive MCU has also become the direction of local manufacturers "breakthrough". However, compared with consumer products, automotive MCUs pose challenges to local manufacturers in terms of R&D costs, standards certification, and ecological establishment, so it is difficult to significantly expand the market supply of automotive MCUs in a short period of time, and large manufacturers will still rule the ecology of the car circle.
New energy vehicles and hybrid vehicles replace the market share of fuel vehicles on a large scale, making the use of power semiconductors grow rapidly. As with MCU, high-grade power semiconductors are also concentrated in the hands of a small number of large manufacturers. Vehicle demand is soaring, but the supply of power semiconductors has been the problem. Last year, the epidemic and floods in Southeast Asia, affecting the local Infineon, NXP, ON Semiconductor and ST factory output and logistics, widening the gap between supply and demand.
Large factory capacity frequently setback, resulting in power semiconductor supply and demand gap to maintain, and then delivery and prices climbing. It seems that the automotive power semiconductor is almost the current "short material" of the most, supply may continue to exceed demand until next year.
As early as around 2018, TDK and other Japanese factories will focus on the higher gross profit automotive products, creating a wave of unprecedented passive components market. Now the cycle has turned, with a large number of IC demand no longer exists, the inventory level of general class passive components has also reached more than 90 days, and is expected to be followed by a price reduction of 3%-6%. Based on the general products tend to weaken the market situation, Taiwan's factories such as the National Giant began to sharply increase the proportion of higher gross profit automotive products.
In electronic products, integrated circuits and passive components belong to complementary applications, consumer electronics in the cold, will inevitably lead to consumer MCU, PMIC and general passive components with the fall in demand, while automotive demand is still strong, in the context of automotive MCU and high-grade power semiconductor shortages and price increases, high-grade passive components with the same rise is also expected.
Recently, Broadcom is expected to increase the price of network communication chips by 6%-8% from next year, the price increase against the trend of the move reflects the network communication market also with the automotive market as demand exceeds supply. On the reason for the price increase, Broadcom said that because countries to promote the construction of 5G projects, 5G and Wi-Fi 6 demand is strong, network communications chips are in short supply, and therefore decided to increase prices.
At the height of the lack of core tide, the market of network communication chips than MCU, PMIC and other materials fluctuations are smaller, but in the lack of core tide recede, the market of network communication chips are relatively more "resistant", so that Broadcom and other factories still have the potential to increase prices. Similar to automotive materials, Wi-Fi 6 and 5G communications will also create a wave of longer-term opportunities, in favor of strong demand for Netcom chips to maintain a steady rise.
Conclusion: supply and demand reversal, need to adjust in due course
Consumer electronics in the cold, resulting in a number of types of components market dip, the current industry consensus inventory adjustment up to maintain two to three quarters, it can be seen that the semiconductor industry cycle conversion has opened, the majority of distributors, terminal stocking ideas is certainly to be different from the lack of core tide period.
But in the general market conditions, automotive, netcom and other applications by virtue of the industry chain long term dividends, related materials are still maintained in short supply. Obviously, many chip companies that lost performance due to the downturn in consumer electronics will turn to automotive materials for growth, for distributors, timely adjustment of stocking strategy is also necessary, how to strike a balance between the semiconductor market cycle shift and industry chain long term opportunities will be very important.
